QUESTION 1. 473 providence, if it were not with a regard to some general moral evil, that is, sin. Will some persons again complain, that in representing the sorrows and miseries of mankind, I have here acted the part of a satyrist rather than of a philosopher, and have summed together all the pains, mischiefs and distresses of human life without giving a due place to the pleasures and delights of it, or bringing them into the account? I confess that the great God hath fur- nished this world, which is the habitation of man, with multi- tudes of grateful and pleasing objects, to regale Isis senses, to feast his appetites, andto excite his most agreeable passions, which might have been part of his happiness in a state of innocence. But now the unreasonable strength and violent efforts of these , appetites, the sinful bent and bias of his will, together with the weak resistance against vicious, excesses which is made by his reason and conscience, turn every one of these pleasures into real dangers and snares. There are but few who indulge these delights without dishonouring their nature, defiling their souls with sin, and breaking the laws of God ; and in the midstof so degenerate a state, their most tempting satisfactions and de- lights do in a great measure lose the nature of good or benefit, because of their constant danger of plunging men into guilt and misery. Shall I be told again, that there are multitudes of men, whose easy and peaceful circumstances are much superior to their troubles and sorrows, and these would upon the whole be pro- nounced happy, even,if there wereno future state ? Though I have answered this already, by shewing that the happiness ofthe major part does not vindicate'that constitution which leaves any individuals under misery without some original demerit, yet will answer here more directly, That if the greatest part of men could see things in their true light, as God and angels re- gard them, surely the bulk of the world would be found on the miserable side, whatever particular exceptions might be found among individuals : And this in general would teach us that the inhabitants of this world are not a race of happy beings, such as they would have been, if they had been innocent, or such as they were when they came first out of the hands of their Maker ? But the inference of our wretchedness or ruin, may be pronounced with much more strength and universality concerning this world, if we join the sins and the miseries of mankind together. If we unite in one view all the criminal as well as the painful circumstances which I have represented i>t these foregoing propositions, I think it must be granted, that there is some universal ruin and degeneracy spread all over hu- man nature, and every individual helps to complete this mourn- ful sentence, and confirm the truth of it, that man is a sinful andunhappy being. VOL. tv. S
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